MS Outlook not receiving emails. Help pls!

I'm having troubles with Outlook not receiving emails. Below are all the details of my issue.

My info:
WinXP Home ed
Bigpond Standard Cable
MS Outlook 2003
Firewall - ZA (free version)
Antivirus - Avast (free version)
Wireless Router (DLink - DI-624)

The Prob:
'Send/Receive' goes though OK when Outlook is first started. And works OK for a few 'send/receive' operations, then for whatever reason it stops receiving. Sending still goes through fine but receiving just times out.

What I've done:
Spoke to Bigpond about it... went through all the basic checks - email account setup, Outlook options. Still no resolution.

As a test, I created the same email address account in Outlook Express. And for sure it worked fine there.

This has got me stumped!! And Bigpond reckons they have never seen such a problem. Also said they couldn't help me any further as it appears to be not a Bigpond issue.

I don't think it's a firewall or antivirus problem as it initially works OK on start up of Outlook, just stops receiving after a while for some reason. There are 3 email addresses that my Outlook picks up, it is always and only the same one that has this problem.

Please provide any comments/advice/help you feel may help solve my issue, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Ben.

p.s. If I am not in the right forum/thread for this problem. Where would be a better forum/thread for such a question?

 

Who is the provider of the problematical email account? Contact them as see if they have issues going on. If the other 2 are working fine, then I would say it is not software or hardware related, but provider related.

Did it used to work fine previously? Is this a recent issue? Or has it always been a problem with this account?

 

The ISP is Bigpond in Australia. It is only a problem after a few 'send/receives' in Outlook, the problem only starts after that.

Normally, when BP tells me that it is not their issue. I would think that no doubt they are just trying to remove themselves from solving an issue, as they have in the past. But for this particular issue, I actually agree with them.

 

Have you tried, exporting the email in the account in question.

Then delete it, then re-create it in outlook?

Any issues?

Then importing the .pst file?

I know you tested with OE (outlook express). Just curious. Very odd issue you are having.

 

As another test, I've set up that email account on my work PC. It has been running OK for all morning.

Another reason that leads me to believe that it is Outlook on the home PC.

I haven't tried that. Deleting the account comnpletely and setting it up again. Will do it tonight when I get home.

 

Just a thought, make sure your Outlook at home is not set to automatically send-receive at a high rate (like, say, every minute or so). Some ISPs limit the amount if times there server can be contacted within a given time frame (such as per hour, or per day, or whatever). Might explain why it works for the first couple of times and then starts timing out.

Failing that, it might be worth rebooting the computer into safe mode with networking, see if it happens in that mode. If it does not, it is probably some sort of security program/spam filter going on the fritz and blocking the email.

 

Thanks Gecks. I did as you said and booted in Safe Mode with Network. Lead me to find out that it was ZA (free version) that was the problem. I don't know the technical issues behind it but it is now running fine with ZA (email protection) turned off. Maybe it was clashing with Avast's email protection?!

 

bennos,

Don't know about avast, but I had the same problem with ZA and AVG Free, until I did as you and stopped "email protection" in ZA. In fact on AVG free forum they tell you to disable it, so that simplified me finding the issue and answer. I had so many problems with ZA free that I ended up buying AVG+Firewall and am very happy.

Glad it's working and sorry I was too late to help.

Have a good day,
BeenThereDoneThat

 

Cheers anyway!!

 

This is a known problem between Avast and Zonealarm on XP machines when you run Outlook. However, it doesn't affect everyone for some reason, but when you install Avast it warns you that it could become and issue, and offers options to not install certain things that create the issues you experience. You could uninstall and reinstall Avast and select those options, if you still wish to run this combination of software